


Mutual Friends

by thequadraticformula



Category: TWICE (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, F/F, Surreal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-22
Updated: 2020-01-22
Packaged: 2021-02-27 12:28:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,117
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22367179
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thequadraticformula/pseuds/thequadraticformula
Summary: The only reason they ever saw each other was because of mutual friends.WARNING: Course language and sexual references.
Relationships: Chou Tzuyu/Hirai Momo, Hirai Momo/Kim Dahyun
Comments: 6
Kudos: 14





	Mutual Friends

**Author's Note:**

> This work is crossposted on Wattpad and Asianfanfics under the user 'thequadraticformula'.  
> DO NOT REPOST THIS WORK.

The two never talked to each other much. Tzuyu just liked to think that they sat at the same lunch table. The only reason they ever saw each other was because of mutual friends. Neither of them was particularly good a communicating with the people around them. Both from foreign backgrounds, both too shy to speak up.

Tzuyu never noticed anything special about her. Nothing she was willing to admit. Despite her immaculate silky raven hair, her obsidian eyes, her perfect pouty lips, her timid voice and her amazing body proportions, she was really nothing special at one glance. Nothing Tzuyu would say was out of the ordinary.

She would never admit to anyone that when she had first met Momo, she had been unable to speak, not because of her shy demeanour, not because she hated to meet new people, not because she was struggling with her Korean pronunciation. None of that. It was simply because she was beautiful. She wasn't just beautiful in the eye-catching, mouth-watering way, but the way that she spoke and held herself seemed to make Tzuyu... feel something.

Her self-introduction was nothing short of amusing. Jihyo had taken the girl by the hand and encouraged her to speak, but she seemed to be lost for words. Her hair, that day, had been out in its natural dark curtain. It fell about her face like a mask which reminded Tzuyu of a horror film she'd once seen.

When Momo started to speak, Tzuyu remembered being surprised by her voice.

"Hello. My name is Hirai Momo. Nice to meet you."

It was soft and low with a cute little lilt when she pronounced her words. It reminded her of herself when she had started out learning Korean. Speaking so slowly and carefully until you knew for sure that the grammar and pronunciation was right. Tzuyu was amazed to find the accent exceedingly adorable.

Tzuyu's friends introduced themselves one by one, each in their own funny way. Dahyun with her famous finger guns, Nayeon with a pretty smile, Jeongyeon in a rather uninterested way and Chaeyoung with a cute little bow.

Momo bowed slightly in return before attempting to say something else to the girls standing in front of her, but she became so flustered, that she began to speak in what Tzuyu could only perceive as Japanese. She shook her head and apologised. Jihyo patted her back gently and told her it wasn't a problem.

"Tzuyu probably understands how you feel." Momo looked up and rest her pretty eyes on the younger girl. "She's an exchange from Taiwan." Jihyo said, obviously hinting that Tzuyu should introduce herself.

This is where things got embarrassing. Tzuyu bowed and tried to speak, but her lips seemed to be sealed shut. Momo looked her up and down and in Tzuyu's memories, her eyes never left her body. This exchange often popped up in her dreams. Momo would look at Tzuyu and Tzuyu would never be able to open her mouth to say anything.

Momo integrated herself seamlessly into the group of friends. Every lunch after their lectures, all the girls would meet at the cafeteria and sit at the small table furthest from the door at the back of the room.

They would complain about classes and talk about life as they ate. Once Momo had made herself comfortable, she made herself known as a bit of a chatterbox. If nobody interjected, she could tell endless stories of her life, and about the family and friends she'd left in Japan. She also turned out to be one of those people who asks if you've finished eating something and then asks if she can eat it instead.

For some reason, Tzuyu never really felt the need, or want, to talk to her. Momo mustn't have either, because despite the fact that they had now been sitting at the same table with mutual friends in university for over a year now, neither girl had spoken to each other unless absolutely necessary.

Tzuyu remembered only one occasion where she had talked to Momo for longer than a minute.

It was a while ago, during one of Momo's lunchtime rants where she had begun to talk about her friends from Japan.

"It's been so long." She said just before lifting another heaped spoonful of rice to her mouth. "Even though I call them every day, I still feel sad. I miss them so much."

"I know the feeling." Tzuyu said absentmindedly. She was thinking about her parents and her brother and her friends she had cut off once she had moved to Korea. At least Momo called her family.

"How long has it been?" Momo asked gently. Tzuyu was too nervous to look at her, but she couldn't help but admire the sound of her voice for the thousandth time. Maybe this was why she was so quiet these days. She couldn't get enough of hearing that voice. Then Tzuyu remembered that Momo was talking to her and she shook her head.

"Too long." She muttered, refusing to look her way in fear that Momo and the other girls may be able to read the guilt and grief from her expression. Jihyo, especially, had always been rather observant no matter how deadpan Tzuyu tried to be. She didn't want to be caught becoming emotional when a topic like this came up. She didn't want the sympathy.

"Sometimes I wish I could just teleport to Japan for a second. Just one second. Just to see how they're doing." Momo said quietly.

"I wish I could turn back time." Tzuyu said as she felt tears come to her eyes. She blinked rapidly to get rid of them. "I wish I would never have left them."

The silence after Tzuyu's comment was unreadable, so she left without a word to any of the girls.

That was the only time she had really talked to Momo. It was barely even a conversation, more of an outpour of bottled up emotions.

To this day, Tzuyu couldn't figure out why she had said all those things in front of her friends. In front of Momo. Never in a million years would she have thought of saying anything about her family from Taiwan in front of her friends. But hat sweet, soothing voice... Momo has a way of sneaking it out of her.

"Tzuyu."

Tzuyu looked up from her plate of untouched food, only to realise that all her friends had left for their study groups and lectures at the end of the day. The cafeteria was practically empty. She must have dozed off thinking about Momo again. She often did that these days. It was always making her late for her study groups in the afternoon.

She looked over her shoulder to find that the person who had pulled her out of her daydream was none other than Momo herself. This was weird. Momo never talked to her. What was so special about today?

"What?" Tzuyu murmured and stretched her legs beneath the table, feeling a little awkward. Momo seemed uncomfortable too. She shuffled from foot to foot, scuffing the toes of her boots on the floor. Tzuyu found herself unable to look at her in the eye, so she turned her attention to her legs. She was wearing denim shorts that cut off well up her muscled thighs. Her calves were well shaped too. Tzuyu wondered what Momo must be doing to get such beautiful legs.

"I just..." Momo started. Tzuyu kept her gaze on Momo's legs, feeling her heart speed up for no reason at the older girl's words. "I just wanted to know if you would like to... go out with me some time?"

Tzuyu's head immediately reeled with false memories that she had created for herself during her daydreams.

She could imagine herself holding Momo's hand. She thought it might be slightly smaller than her own, soft and cool. Their fingers were linked together, and they were walking down the street beside the university. The street she often walked down when she wanted to be alone. They would pass Tzuyu's favourite restaurant. It was a Taiwanese restaurant that she had discovered when walking to school one day. She loved it there because it reminded her of home, even if the food was never as good.

She could almost hear herself begin to laugh at some imaginary joke that Momo had told her. She could almost feel herself wrap her arms around her and pull her close. She thought that she could almost smell her perfume and taste her lips as they seemed to melt into one.

But she knew that those things were lies.

"You mean with the others too?" Tzuyu asked. She was still unable to look up. Her cheeks were searing red and her heart was thundering. What was wrong with her? Couldn't she just have a normal conversation without making everything so weird? Couldn't she just keep her fantasies tied up?

Momo laughed nervously.

"No," She murmured. "I mean... just you and me... Just us?"

Tzuyu felt her head drag itself up to meet the eyes of the girl she had been loving from afar for more than a year. Momo's cheeks were pink like her own and she bit her lip nervously. Her eyes looked like they might tear up if Tzuyu continued to say nothing, so a word slipped out of her mouth.

"Sure." She cursed at herself mentally at the monotone of her voice that she never seemed to be able to get rid of, but as she watched a small smile trace itself across Momo's lips, her mind was wiped of self-deprecating thoughts.

"How about tomorrow afternoon?" She said enthusiastically. "Are you free after one?"

Tzuyu nodded and all of a sudden, she found tears in her eyes. She couldn't tell if they were happy tears or sad ones. She couldn't understand the emotion she felt at Momo's words. She felt like smiling like an idiot, but she also felt like she had just lost someone important to her. She'd never experienced anything like this before.

Momo's smile faded and her eyebrows furrowed. She sat down slowly next to Tzuyu and draped an arm around her shoulders.

"If you're not free, that's fine." She said innocently and it made Tzuyu want to laugh because it was such a dumb thing to say, but she burst into tears instead.

It was like her heart was getting ripped out of her chest, but she knew that this was the moment that she had been waiting for.

Momo cupped Tzuyu's face in her hands and used her thumbs to softly wipe away the endless tears. Tzuyu could see that she was crying too, and it made her want to laugh again. What the heck was going on?

She had just been asked out by the girl she liked, and they had planned a date for tomorrow. She should be smiling. Momo should be smiling. This was not a moment to cry, yet here they both were, sobbing into each other's embrace.

"What's going on?" Momo mumbled miserably into Tzuyu's shoulder. "Why do I feel so sad?"

The both pulled back at the same time to observe the other's face. Momo's eyes were red and puffy. Her bottom lip was trembling with the effort she was making to cease the tears. Her shoulders were rising and falling raggedly as she took uneven breaths. Tzuyu lifted her hand to Momo's forehead to brush her bangs into place.

"I'm sorry." Tzuyu said, feeling extremely guilty. "I'm sorry if I made you cry."

Momo shook her head slowly and laughed.

"I don't know what's happening to me." She smiled with her teeth showing. Tzuyu wasn't sure if she'd seen her teeth before. They were cute.

They shared a gaze. Intense and filled with emotion for what seemed like hours, before Momo looked down at her smart watch.

"Fuck. I've missed my study group meet. It's already three."

"So have I." Tzuyu said. Her lecture was finished one hour ago. She would have to get the notes from Jeongyeon.

"I-I'm free now." Momo looked expectantly at Tzuyu. Tzuyu felt her face pull into the widest grin she had ever felt in her life.

"So am I." She laughed.

The two spent the afternoon wandering aimlessly through the city. Tzuyu's imagination was accurate. Momo's hand was slightly smaller than her own, but it was warm. They did nothing but talk about their lives and laugh at dumb jokes and give piggy back rides and hold hands until the sky went black.

Tzuyu had never met anybody that seemed to get her as much as Momo did. They both were shy and hated meeting new people. They were both from a foreign country. They had both left their families behind for a different life.

Tzuyu learned that Momo was a dancer, which explained her magnificent legs. She wanted to teach others to dance as a part time job while she completed her degree. She hadn't started yet because she didn't have enough money to rent a dance studio, but Tzuyu admired her eagerness.

She even ended up trying to teach Tzuyu a dance to a Japanese song that she liked, but they just ended up tripping over each other and lying on the floor laughing.

Tzuyu didn't know if the night even ended or not. She woke up abruptly in her bed and looked at the alarm clock. Five am. The had an hour before her alarm went off, so she decided to lie down and stare at the ceiling, contemplating the events of yesterday afternoon.

She had gotten along so well with Momo that night. Maybe they were meant to be.

And they were.

When Momo and Tzuyu were together, Tzuyu couldn't remember how she had lived without her. They became so inseparable in the span of the next few months, that their friends seemed to think the same.

"Why can't I imagine you two apart?" Dahyun said to them on day at their usual lunch meeting. Momo was on Tzuyu's lap and her arms were around Momo's waist. Tzuyu beamed at the comment. "I'm kinda jealous." She grumbled, looking at Momo in particular. "I wish I had someone that was there for me all the time."

"You'll find someone, Dahyunie." Momo said, leaning her head back to rest on Tzuyu's shoulder. Tzuyu could smell her flowery shampoo faintly.

Dahyun stared at the couple with a strange expression just as everyone was getting up to leave. She opened her mouth and closed it a few times before she started to speak.

"Tzuyu," She began, her expression concerned as she lifted a hand to her eye and traced a finger down her cheek. "Why are you crying?"

Tzuyu lurched upright. She was back in her bed. The light was off, and it was so dark that she couldn't see her hands in front of her eyes. Her body was cold and sweaty. She lifted her hand to her face and felt wet tracks down her cheeks and the bridge of her nose.

Had that just been a dream?

She felt something move in the bed beside her. She flinched when she felt a hand come into contact with her leg that was not her own. She shrieked a little and a person beside her under the covers groaned, low and gravelly, their voice thick with sleep.

"Baby, are you alright?" It was Momo. Tzuyu sighed deeply and moved to take the sleepy girl's hand in her own.

"Sorry, Momo." She whispered and kissed the back of her hand. "Just go back to sleep."

She didn't answer, so Tzuyu assumed that she had fallen asleep immediately.

The silly girl.

She wiped the remainders of the tears from her eyes and lay back down, pulling the body of her girlfriend close. Momo's head was nestled under her chin and their legs were tangled and Tzuyu could feel her steady breathing against her chest.

Momo hadn't moved into Tzuyu's apartment, but she might as well. It seemed she was here every moment that they weren't in school. Not that Tzuyu minded. She already had a drawer full of Momo's things in her small closet. She was waiting for the girl to make the big move. She was waiting for Momo to ask, but she guessed that she wasn't ready just yet.

It was kind of funny though. Since Momo was there so often, she could forget things when she did need to return to her own apartment a few blocks away and she would almost always have to return to grab something. It made Tzuyu feel happy that Momo would trust her so much with her belongings.

She glanced over Momo's body to the digital alarm clock on the bedside table. Tomorrow would be their four-month anniversary and she hadn't planned anything. How has it already been four months? Wasn't it only a few days ago that they decided to go out together? Why did it feel like time was slipping away from them so quickly? Why can't Tzuyu remember anything?

Tzuyu must have fallen asleep again because she was woken by the bleep of her alarm. An obnoxious noise that sounded as loud as a siren.

"Shut the fuck up." She whispered and tried to reach over to turn it off with her eyes closed, when her hand came into contact with Momo's face instead.

"Shit!" She leaned over to kiss Momo's face where she had hit her, and her face twitched into a smile. "I'm sorry, Momoring. Are you ok?"

Momo hit Tzuyu lightly on the arm and giggled.

"I'm fine dummy." She reached over and switched off the alarm. Then she turned to face Tzuyu with a cheeky grin. "Can we just forget the alarm for a minute." She said and then kissed Tzuyu deeply and she forgot where and who she was.

It was strange to find herself walking alone, but Tzuyu was walking alone today.

Momo had finally worked up enough money doing a part time delivery job to rent out a dance studio near their apartment. Tzuyu had also convinced Momo to let her put some money into it too. She wanted to support Momo's ambitions no matter what. Today, Momo was holding a dance class there. She'd started to do it every Monday and so Tzuyu would find herself walking home alone from school as Momo would leave early.

She was walking down that street with the Taiwanese restaurant. Some customers were walking out as she passed, and she caught a whiff of the scent of the food and was instantly reminded of home. She wondered when she would pluck up the courage to go home.

She did a double take when she saw that Jihyo and Dahyun were the two who had walked out. They were muttering subtly to each other, but Tzuyu couldn't help but overhear.

"She's put me in a really uncomfortable position." Dahyun was saying, glancing around at the people who walked by. "I can't say anything for fear of being caught, but I want to say something because it's not fair to treat someone like that."

"Why are you doing this to yourself?" Jihyo asked.

"I don't know, Jihyo." Dahyun sighed and they rounded a corner that diverged from Tzuyu's usual route to her house. Just before they were out of earshot, she caught the last of Dahyun's sentence. "I'm in love. Love does strange things to a person."

She looked behind her and caught sight of Tzuyu before quickly turning away and continuing down the alleyway.

When Tzuyu arrived back at her apartment, a heavy sadness was suddenly upon her. Something was wrong. She unlocked the door and closed it gently behind her, wondering when Momo would be home. Sometimes it was only when she had gone to sleep on the couch waiting for her that she would arrive and carry her to bed.

She would often pretend to fall asleep on purpose just as she heard the door open, just so she could be held by her.

Tzuyu rubbed the back of her neck. Something was odd. She stood still in the hallway for a moment trying to see it and caught an item of clothing before her feet. It was a pair of shorts, neon yellow and sporty. Momo didn't own any shorts of that colour. She always said that yellow didn't suit her. Not too much further down the hall was another item. A shirt. This was Momo's. It was pink and plain. Tzuyu remembered borrowing it a few times. It was the shirt she had left in this morning.

Then she heard a noise. A breathy sigh coming directly from the door to their bedroom. It was Momo. She shouldn't be home right now. She should be at the studio.

There was another piece of clothing slung over the arm of the couch. A bra. Tzuyu didn't own any bras like that and wasn't one to leave dirty underwear all over her apartment. Momo didn't own bras like that either.

Another sound could be heard from her room. This time it wasn't Momo.

"Momo..." The voice said, muffled by the door.

Tzuyu felt dizzy.

She sat heavily on the couch and listened to the ordeal coming from her bedroom. The sadness she had felt before became heavier like wet sandbags on her shoulders.

It was a while before the door opened, but when it did, she looked up nonchalantly as Momo and Dahyun stumbled out, half naked and laughing loudly. When they noticed Tzuyu, Dahyun's face paled, if that were possible, and Momo looked as if she were about to vomit.

Tzuyu thought about saying something witty. Something snarky and rude. Something to piss both of them off. Something to show Momo that she didn't give a shit. But all she could do, was look silently at her girlfriend and cry.

Dahyun was quick to leave, bowing and apologising as she pulled on the yellow shorts and picked up the bra. She was wearing one of Momo's jackets and she rushed out the front door. Wasn't Dahyun walking away from her house when Tzuyu walked here? How did this make any sense?

Momo wouldn't look at her in the eyes.

"Chewy... Baby... it's not what it looks like."

Tzuyu laughed. She laughed through the tears and that horrible feeling she couldn't describe was coursing through her. That same feeling of loss that she had felt when Momo had first asked her out.

She clutched her stomach as the giggles subsided and she looked up to face a teary Momo.

"Why is it that you always say the dumbest things?" Tzuyu said, wiping more tears from her eyes.

She felt like her soul was being ripped in two. She felt like someone she'd loved had just died. She felt like she was locked in a room with no windows, doors or vents and she was slowly suffocating on stale air.

Momo had begun to cry. Her face was in her hands and her shoulders were shaking, but Tzuyu didn't move to hug or comfort her despite the muscle memory.

Why was it that she had known that this would happen?

She looked at Momo through watery eyes as she broke down in apologies. As she begged for forgiveness on her knees and her hands clasped together, Tzuyu failed to see what she had found so intriguing about her.

She really wasn't anything special. Her hair was just plain black and boring. Her eyes were a dull brown. Her lips were scrunched unattractively to the side of her face. Her body was average. She was just an ordinary girl.

She was just a cheater.

"Tzuyu!"

Tzuyu lifted her head from her arms at the sound of Jeongyeon's voice.

"Tzuyu, you're gonna be late for class again! Come on!"

She stretched her legs under the table and turned to see all her friends beginning to pack away their rubbish and lunch containers, ready to leave. Jihyo was nagging Nayeon to hurry. Chaeyoung was shoving large spoons of food in her mouth. Jeongyeon was looking at her expectantly and she saw Dahyun at the other end of the table in the arms of her girlfriend.

Momo was looking at her. Momo was crying. It took all of Tzuyu's will power to turn away from her and begin to walk to class with Jeongyeon.

She didn't really talk to Momo much. Tzuyu just liked to think that they sat at the same lunch table.

The only reason they ever saw each other was because of mutual friends.


End file.
